MUO extends greetings on 5th anniversary and appreciates announcement by PPM MPs to rectify past wrongs to prioritize national interests

October 27, 2016

London 27 October 2016 – The Maldives United Opposition (MUO) extends greetings to Leader President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and members on their 5th anniversary and expresses appreciation for the announcement today by PPM MPs to rectify past wrongs and to prioritize national interests.

Eight PPM MPs announced today that they will no longer abide by whip-lines and instructions forwarded to the house by President Yaameen Abdul Gayoom that contravene the immediate interests of the Maldivian people, pledging to work together in parliament to address these concerns. The MPs cited the developing economic downturn, unbridled corruption within the ruling regime, the rises in the budgetary deficit, increasing allegations of money laundering, the growing isolation of the nation internationally, the plans to sell freeholds of Maldivian land and lagoons to foreign owners, and the widespread lack of security through law & order and due process as common issues that will unite them in parliament.

The MUO reaffirms the coalition’s shared belief that the best system of governance to attain progress is the multi-party political system. The MUO condemns concerted efforts by the regime of President Yaameen Abdul Gayoom to weaken and dismantle the multi-party political system through unlawful and coerced Court rulings for him to take over the PPM, while withholding, the past ten months, of constitutionally stipulated public funding for political parties. In a subsequent action, the government made obvious its devious plan to expropriate funds to rival parties by expunging thousands of members (some since inception in 2005) from a number of opposition parties on the ruse that they had not appended their finger-prints on membership forms.

“The MUO shall work together with all MPs and parties who prioritize the interests of the Maldivian people and urge other MPs to join up in exposing the fact that President Yaameen Abdul Gayoom had serially contravened the interests and trust of the Maldivian people and that his government had lost its mandate and is no longer tenable” MUO Leader Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed said in a statement released from London.